Topical items and views on the impact of digitisation on publishing and its content and the issues that make the news. This blog follows the report 'Brave New World',
(http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/vcil/bravenewworld.html ), published by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland and authored by Martyn Daniels. The views and comments expressed are those of the author.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Dead In The Water?

Has the world gone mad? We have all read about the various companies who sold bottled tap water as natural spring water. We have seen the scene in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ where the water bottle top is being resealed with glue. Now we read about a German publisher who plans to sell free Wikipedia material designer print on demand works. Some may applaud their innovation and the ability to monetize what many view as free.

The essence of Wikipedia is to be a living and evolving point of reference. It encourages online input from all and in doing so democratizes the work. It also encourages online peer review providing auto correction and validation. It strength is that it is being constantly appended, edited and referenced. The new venture works contrary to this and the reality is that the moment it is captured in print it no longer is Wikipedia and becomes just another dead tree.

So we now have a tie-up between PediaPress, Wikipedia and Lightning Source. Where Lightning Source will be responsible for all the printing, Wikipedia obviously the database and source and some may suggest PediaPress for bottling the water from the tap.

The service uses an authoring tool that ‘plugs directly into the Wikipedia sites’ so users can pick and choose for their on-demand titles. The 20x14cm books are perfect bound with colour covers and black-and-white text pages. They will retail at around €7.99 for 100pp up to €26 for 700pp.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

This will be a great tool for a user who would like to compile a series of subjects or related articles into a cohesive document. While we are in a digital age, not everyone enjoys consuming content over a computer screen. What not give the consumer a choice in how he wants to consume the content. Of course, it does cost money to print a book, so it can't be free. Tap water is not free either last time I checked my water bill.

About Me

Before entering publishing I worked for many years as a Senior Executive in blue chip organisations in the retail, oil and automotive sectors. My publishing induction was initially as Director of Strategic Development at VISTA. There I was responsible for, and a contributor to, their highly acclaimed ‘Publishing in the 21st Century’ research series, the primary creator behind publishing services PubEasy and ‘batch.co.uk’, the initiator of the development of new Front Office systems to support publishers. In 2006 I joined Value Chain International(VCIL) initially as VP Marketing, Media and Publishing before becoming their President in 2009. In July 2011 the company's operations were acquired by Syncordia. I hold two non executive positions with publishing industry players Bibliophile Ltd and Haven Group and currently setting up Read Petite a service focused on providing digital short form material online via subscription.
Email mdaniels@opus57.co.uk